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Missive

About the Story

It's your birthday today. Your ex-girlfriend brings you a present, and inside are a series of mysterious letters that tell the story of an old love triangle that ended in murder. Solve puzzles, solve the mystery, or get wasted and do neither: it's up to you.

Awards

Editorial Reviews

Rock, Paper, ShotgunDead Letters: MissiveDespite this I did find myself intrigued by the story – Astor’s more than the one taking place in the present day – and the letter puzzles weren’t impossible. ... Even if you never understand why you can still watch the story unfold – something I very much associate with daytime TV amateur sleuthing.See the full review

Missive starts with the familiar my-grubby-apartment setting, but really it's about a murder mystery wrapped in word puzzles - armchair detective work at its finest. An alternative headline for this would naturally be "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma."

The puzzles are optional, not connected, and of the cryptic crossword type. A phrase in the text might prompt the reader to look for, say, every third letter of each word. These were pretty fun, even if most of the puzzles were completely unintelligible to me.

Good if you like cryptic crosswords and lots of wordplay loosely connected to plot.

Missive is clever and fun, but is a bit of a mismatch. It has a gripping and interesting story about a man who just went through a breakup interacting with both his ex girlfriend and a mysterious present.

These form two fairly distinct stories that are both good. The true relationship between you and your ex slowly comes out in a very clever way. The present story involves sifting through old letters and deciphering puzzles. If you get the puzzles right, you pick the correct next letter to read. It doesn't tell you if you were right till the end, making lawnmowering hard. You can have a great experience without solving all the puzzles.

The game has some scattered profanity and frequent alcohol use. These usually turn me off of a game, but the PC was painted as a (to me) lovable guy going through a hard time, so I had sympathy for him. Good game.

If you enjoyed Missive...

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Recommended Lists

Missive appears in the following Recommended Lists:

Detective and mystery games by MathBrushThese are games where you play a detective or someone else investigating a mystery. Most of them are realistic games which I am splitting off of my realistic list. Some are more magical or science fi-ish.

Favorite wordplay/puzzle/code games by MathBrushGames whose main 'genre' is wordplay. This list does not include games like the Edifice or Suveh Nux which have significant wordplay elements, but which are not the focus of the story.

Polls

The following polls include votes for Missive:

Games with unique hint systems by delanoI'm looking for games that offer hints in any way, except for printing them in sequence on the screen. For example: characters that offer hints; objects that, when examined or used in a certain way, suggest actions to the player; etc.

Games that show everyday life by Sam JacksonI'm looking for preferably short games that focus on part of someone's life in our world and preferably our time. I would like games with an emotional focus.